USD 464’s early enrollment headcount offers no surprises

Nearly a week after the start of the school year, Tonganoxie USD 464 officials say they weren’t surprised by early enrollment numbers.

Randy Weseman, interim district superintendent, said the district had a headcount Monday of 1,857 students. Of those, 119 were kindergarten students who will only count as half for purposes of state per pupil aid when the district makes its official full-time equivalency report to the state on Sept. 19.

Although he emphasized the early enrollment figures were unofficial, not subject to the rigorous review of Sept. 19 official accounting and likely to change with the late enrollment of new students, Monday’s headcount had no surprises, Weseman said. It was in line with enrollment projections used to complete the 2011-12 budget the board of education approved earlier this month, he said.

“I’m not anticipating we’ll have huge growth here,” he said. “It’s pretty much within the range of last year.”

Weseman, who started as interim superintendent this past month, said he didn’t have any history of the district’s enrollment.

The headcount breakdown by building is 755 students in kindergarten through fourth grade at the elementary school, 600 fifth- through eighth-graders in the middle school and 619 students in the high school.

Tonganoxie Elementary School principal Tammie George said that while enrollment wasn’t down districtwide, it did drop somewhat at the elementary school because last year’s large fourth-grade class of 160 students moved on to the middle school. There are only six fourth-grade classrooms in the school this year, down one classroom from a year ago, George said. With that, there is only one full-time classroom in the Quonset hut this year, although a second classroom in the hut is used part time. All other classrooms in the school and in modular units are in use, she said.